Customer Reviews

Lord of the Rings: Conquest

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Pandemic, the maker of Star Wars Battlefront has given its familiar engine a facelift and have taken it to Middle-Earth. To be honest I was never really a big fan of Star Wars: Battlefront having been more accustomed to the solitary lightsaber battles of the Jedi Knight series but at least to me the Battlefront concept just seems to work significantly better in the Lord of the Rings universe. I downloaded the demo and couldn't wait to play the full game because it's just fun as hell.

In the Singleplayer campaign you can pick your character class: Warrior, Mage, Archer or Scout and hack and slash your way across the battlefield by rallying your troops in basic "Capture the Flag" strategic objectives or destroying specific tactical goals to achieve victory for your armies. Occasionally you can play a character from the movies such as Aragorn or Gandalf depending on which character class you have currently selected when more "experienced" reinforcements are called upon. The nice thing is that you can change your character class mid-game so you are not always restricted to certain classes/abilities though it is prudent to know when to select specific classes for certain campaigns. For example, a Scout may be called in because of his ability to render himself invisible to sneak past enemy lines, or an Archer would be better suited for ranged attacks. The Mage is very powerful with his staff and can smack down hordes of enemy orcs in close melee or can fire ranged lightning strikes, toss fireballs, and heal wounded troops to bring reinforcements back up to full strength. The Warrior is very powerful with a sword in hand for close action melee and can quickly plow through enemy hordes with a spinning firesword or throw axes for ranged attacks.

The graphics are stunning in HD along with Howard Shore's awesome thematic score playing in the background and Hugo Weaving (Elrond) narrating the game really puts you into the action of the epic battles of Middle Earth first hand.

The Multiplayer campaign allows you to connect with up to 16 players or you can just do a two-player splitscreen co-op with a buddy. You can also choose your side, Good or Bad and change the fate of the ring by destroying Frodo and the Shire by fighting for Saruman's forces, the Lord of the Rings equivalent of turning to the Dark Side. And now you can download expansion packs through the Playstation store to add other characters/classes such as Boromir, Arwen and Gothmog as well as new campaign arena maps like Weathertop and Amon Hen.

This game is mandatory for Lord of the Rings fans and even for the casual players who just want to hack it out, I'd recommend the no-nonsense Instant Action and Deathmatch campaigns. Conquest easily blows away EA's titles, even though I enjoyed playing Lord of the Rings The Two Towers on PS2 which I went back and breezed through again for old-time's sake, Conquest makes it look like a warm-up exercise by comparison. The Battle of Helm's Deep in Conquest is similar to Two-Towers but vastly improved for next-gen gameplay. Plus you get to battle at Minas Tirith, Isengard, and all the way to the Black gates of Mordor in the War of the Ring campaign.

Lord of the Rings: Conquest is one game to rule them all.

I think this game achieves most of what it promised to be. It's fair to call it a 'hack n slash' game. I'm a big fan of the Star Wars: Battlefront series. So far as that goes, you can see how Pandemic has started with that system and progressed it in a few ways, and this, in the LOTR setting, seems like the next logical step. Also, it is a lot of fun, and creating the dark storyline accounting for what would have happened if Frodo failed was quite enjoyable. So I enjoyed both campaigns, particularly the splitscreen with my brother. Pros of the game for me would be playing as just about everyone from the Naz-gul and Balrog to Aragorn and Ents. Also the evil storyline. And the mindless hack and slashing is quite a trip. Just fun to wreak havok and go to town on a bunch of enemies. One big con for me was that it doesn't tally your kills or really keep track of your deaths like Battlefront did. I really like saying to a friend after a weak performance, 'where the heck were you on that one' or if I underachieved to try all the harder to bounce back the next time. And no mentions of 'most kills', or 'most accurate' after the level is over. I really missed that not being there. Also playing as some of the heroes was not all it could have been. It was great but some like the Balrog and Ents are destructive, but so slow I think a lot of destruction and mayhem are unfortunately left on the table. Maybe there is no way to fix that, I don't know. Overall, I thought it was easy to pick up and play. It gave clear goals to focus on, and I think it was a logical progression in the series. I was not sure how they would adapt Battlefront from a shooting style game to a hand to hand style, but I think Pandemic pulled it off. After kills you can pick up small health increases (bigger for bigger kills) and a second meter that builds to unleash more vicious attacks. People complained about no unlockables, which is a valid point, but with enough good content in the game from the start, I didn't miss that as much. I do prefer Battlefront's paintball style way of keeping score (i.e. letting you know how many guys you have left vs. the enemy's total tally) to the Conquest style which is more like 'every other game'. You know you've got 3 lives or whatever to finish the level. That 250 vs 250 style was one thing that made Battlefront stand out for me. So anyway, this is a great game. I think most would have fun with it, especially recommended for those who enjoyed the Battlefront games, hack n slash style, and like the LOTR books/movies.

Unfortunately, there were no recent reviews of Lord of the Rings: Conquest when I bought two copies to explain that Electronic Arts stopped supporting online play for this title back in March of 2010. More dissappointing, Amazon continues to advertise that it does have online play and none of the vendors add a note of warning. It also appears after a lot of investigation and trial and error, that there is no way to even use multi-player over a LAN so you can use your own monitor. Co-optimus states that it still has this feature, but I think they have not updated their information either. Without this feature, the game becomes practically worthless, at least to me (and to many others if you google the situation). Now I have to deal with trying to get a refund for a misrepresented product. Here's my warning to you.

I recently rented this game from GameFly. If you're reading this review, hopefully you know that the online play is no more, which is sad. I got this game hoping it was going to be like the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, a game I loved playing on my Nintendo GameCube. I enjoyed the Return of the King because it made hack and slash fun, you got multiplyers for good, excellent and perfect kills. You often had to fight through hordes of enemies and aside from your main weapon, you had bows and arrows and stuff like that, you could also pick up spears and stuff and the game really added a variety and spice to the gameplay.

In Lord of the Rings Conquest, you have four different classes to choose from: warrior, archer, mage and scout. Each has their strengths and weaknesses. You can also play occasionally as a hero that often falls into those various categories. You rack up hits much like in the previous LOTR hack & slash games and you have strong, medium and light attacks and you have various objectives much like the last one, opening doors, claiming positions, protecting things, collecting things, killing baddies and always heading to the next arrow.

This game looks ok. It really disappoints actually, it's nothing special to look at. The recreation of locations looks much like movie locations which is quite something, but the locations are EMPTY. Battlefields looks EMPTY. I can't believe no other review I've read has stated this. This game is NOT EPIC, IT'S EMPTY. I was running around like a crazy person in the Battle for Helms deep LOOKING FOR ORCS TO SLAUGHTER. The game doesn't give the feeling of overwhelming odds and there's more enemies when you invade the Shire then at other key times like the Battle for Helms Deep or the Fields of Pelennor.

You don't use too many of the various classes, you end up just using like the warrior and using the same combo/moves over and over (I realize this same argument could be made about many hack and slash games). But it's boring as heck, and the only thing that helps make this game fun is the occasional break where you get to be some kick-butt dude like Sauramon, Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, an Ent, a Nazgal and my personal favorite, the Balrog. These moments are shining examples in the game that stand out from the time you're that faceless/nameless grunt that will probably die a hundred times by a hundred deaths.

Let's hope that the Lord of the Rings: War in the North will give us a real Lord of the Rings game that will make us proud.

The 2 campaigns were fun. I earned all the trophies easily, except for the online ones because they stopped supporting online play with this game. WHY???!!!! This is like those star wars games, but with lord of the rings people instead. Even though the online capability is gone, the offline is still fun and you can play split screen with a friend.

This game is really fun and cool. This game actually is set up very much like the Star Wars Battlefront series. I like the way it is played. You have certain point in which you have to either defend, or attack. In doing so, you earn checkpoints. These checkpoints allow you to change your character in the middle of the game. In certain parts you get to select a Hero for battle!! The great thing about this game is that you can actually play as the enemy. So, you have the choice of being the good or evil side. The graphics are incredible. The music and the sound put you into the action. The voices of the characters are really cool as well. The controls are pretty easy, although there are many different combinations that you can perform using your weapon. It is a very challenging game and learning each character's attack is essential. For example, I couldn't beat Sauron using Gandalf, or an archer or scout because I wasn't used to playing as those characters. I ended up beating Sauron using a warrior. Which I played most of the level with and so I was used to using.

I think you are a Lord of the Rings fan, this is a definite item to put in your collection. Also, the PS3 allows you to download the upgrades to the game to further enhance the experience.

The game also has a cool multiplayer game where you and another player can be on the same screen fighting the same battle. Or do a head to head battle.

I have not yet played on-line, but looking forward to trying it once I get the hang of the game by completing the many levels of difficulty.

As a fan of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and of Pandemic's Battlefront games, I followed the development of LOTR: Conquest with great interest. I thought the demo was fun, and after playing through the training a few times and several online matches, I decided to part with some cash and buy the full game. Was I disappointed? Well, yes and no.

First, let me focus on the positive.

It's a fun game. Whether playing solo, split-screen with a friend, or online with strangers, there is nothing more satisfying than introducing an orc to the business end of your sword. Of course, for the more malicious player, there is always the option of playing as the bad guy, slaying all of the men, elves, and hobbits you come across. Regardless of which side you choose, you have the choice between four classes - warrior, archer, scout, and mage, each with their own advantages and pitfalls. At times you are given the opportunity to play as one of Middle Earth's many heroes or villains, including Gandalf, Aragorn, The Witch King, and even Sauron himself.

Essentially there are four game modes, which can all be done solo, split-screen multiplayer, or online multiplayer. The campaign takes you through Middle Earth as you battle to either save or destroy it. The campaign objectives are varied enough to keep each mission interesting, and usually include defending a particular area for a given amount of time, capturing a command post, destroying a war machine, or defeating a particular individual. It's in the campaign mode that you really get to feel like a powerhouse since many of the enemies are the weaker variety that can be killed in one or two strikes. The Conquest mode involves capturing territories, while Capture the Ring mode is basically capture the flag, and team death match is self-explanatory. All of the modes are fun to play, but really shine with online multiplayer.

The graphics are good, though not the best out there, and some of the character designs are a little drab. It would be nice if you could tell Gandalf and Saruman apart at a distance (Gandalf should be in his gray costume.) But overall, the graphics make the game nice to look at, and the looks of the characters and locations are true to the recent movies.

The sound in the game is great. Howard Shore's score is used masterfully to create an epic feel. When you start swinging your sword and that familiar music wells up in the background, you can't help but feel like you're really taking part in the battle for Middle Earth. The sound effects are pretty good, too. During battles you can hear the sounds of arrows whizzing by and of swords clanking together. When completing the campaigns, you do tend to hear the same instructions shouted at you over and over ("We must defend the bridge" or something like that) but it's easily overlooked. Also, apart from Hugo Weaving (Elrond), no one from the movies does any voice acting for the game, and while some voices are passable (Aragorn and Gandalf), some are just terribly jarring (Gimli).

Now, onto the negatives, and I do wish this portion of the review didn't have to be as long as it's going to be, but as I've stated, the game is far from perfect and it has its faults.

One thing I would have liked to see was some sort of ranking or scoring system for the single player campaign mode. This would have drastically increased the replay value. I'd imagine it would have been fairly easy to give the player a score based on things like number of enemies slain, time taken to complete each objective, number of deaths, etc. As it is, the only indication that a campaign stage has been completed is that the next one is unlocked. There are three levels of difficulty, but absolutely no record of which stages have been completed on what difficulty setting. It makes playing on a higher difficulty setting completely unrewarding.

Another thing that is frustrating is the scoring system for the multiplayer modes. Basically you get 10 points for killing an enemy and 100 points for either capturing a territory (in Conquest mode) or delivering the One Ring to the enemy base (in Capture the Ring mode.) This sounds all well and good in theory, but in practice makes for some annoying moments. Being a game based mainly on teamwork, it seems unfair to only give points to the player that scores the final blow, when another player might have caused the majority of the damage. The same situation occurs in Capture the Ring mode. A player could carry the ring 99% of the way to the enemy base before getting killed where a teammate could grab it and claim the points. It's a little better when capturing the territories, where the first two people at the flag get the points for the capture, but it's still possible to be killed at the last minute and get nothing, even if you had been the first one there. This could have all been fixed if points were awarded for damage done to an enemy rather than just for the killing blow. Or if points were awarded for the time spent carrying the ring rather than just delivering it to the base.

The biggest complaint, though, has to be the camera. It sometimes seems to flail around without any kind of overall focus. Often you find it in front of you so you can't see what you're fighting. Occasionally it zooms in so close all you can see is your own head. And on some stages like Rivendell and The Shire, the leaves on the trees will completely block your view of what's going on. Of course the controls allow you to reposition the camera at will, but having to do so will often cause missed opportunities. It would have been nice if it was possible to lock the camera behind you so regardless of where you move or turn, you can always see what you're facing.

But for me, the positives of this game far out-weigh the negatives. The game has flaws and faults to be sure, and a lot of missed potential that keeps it from being top-notch, but it's a solid game for fans of LOTR or for those looking for a non-FPS multiplayer experience. Overall, it is a lot of fun, and that's what games should be about in the first place.

I purchased this game new from Wal-Mart as its now just twenty bucks new most places. I played it extensively one night and sold it quickly back on Amazon the next week. Here are the issues I had with the game. The gameplay is way to Arcade like in feel. Your archer might as well be using a machine gun as he mows down people. The combo moves for the other characters are like something out of fighting game rather an RPG. I guess the biggest thing is you buy a licensed game to recreate the movies and there is just such a disconnect between the license and this game. I played all three gamecube games and think they are far superior in every way. If you also have a Wii pick up these games as they are sub 10 bucks on Amazon and are really awesome. Also the camera is kind of weird and made me feel sick which I normally dont get. Sorry to be a downer but buy heavenly sword of the god of war combo.

Fun game, but online play was by far the best part. Its the Battlefield series based in the LOTR universe. Good times...until Electronic Arts pulled the plug on servers supporting online multiplayer on March 16, 2010 (14 months after game introduction). No multiplayer = no fun for this title.

When I first heard about this game last April, it sounded very promising. Unfortunately, it was clear that the PC requirements were beyond my Pentium 4's specs, and that there would not be a version released for my Wii. So in anticipation of this game, as well as a few others, I made one of the best decisions of my adult life - I bought a PS3.

Ultimately, what makes this game really worthwhile is the online play. The single-player campaigns are a blast, don't get me wrong, but there isn't much replay value there. You can get through them both in a afternoon. The online play, though, is extremely addictive. Yes, it is fundamentally a hack and slash game, but in order to get GOOD, you need to use some pretty serious strategy. Modes such as Conquest demand coordination and team cooperation. My favorite mode, however, is Capture the Ring. The constant back and forth, trying to move the ring to the enemy base, feels a whole lot like a nail-biting football game. Seriously. And as in any good football game, strategy is the key to success.

If you are going to jump into the online play, though, I would recommend doing yourself (and your teammates) a favor and purchasing a blue-tooth headset. It makes things so much easier. I am using the official Sony headset, and it works great with this game.